The publication performance of German academic vascular surgery-journals, focal topics and impact factors

Aim The aim of the present study was to describe the publication performance of the academic surgical management teams in Germany based on the preferred journals, their impact factors (IF) and the focal topics. Methods The publications of the vascular surgical management teams, consisting of chief and senior physicians, of 37 German university hospitals were analyzed. Reference date for all considerations (staffing and publications) was 1 July 2017. The publication period covered the last 10 years. The literature search was based on an evaluation of the PubMed database. Results A total of 1047 publications published in 197 journals were recorded. Among them were 3 German language journals with 136 (13.0%) publications but only 3.3% of all cumulative IFs. In 126 journals (64.0%) only one article was published and in 30 (15.2%) two articles. The three PubMed listed journals in which German university vascular surgeons published most frequently were the J Vasc Surg with 126 publications, Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg with 94 and J Endovasc Ther with 88 publications. Of all 1047 publications 46.5% were published in an IF range under 2 and a total of 907/1047 publications (86.6%) in an IF range under 4. In 8.6% of the journals 44.1% of the IFs were generated. In terms of publication topics, thoracic and abdominal aorta were at the top of the list, accounting for almost half of all publications with 501 publications and with 52% of all 1252.08 accumulated IFs. Conclusion A total of 78.6% of the publications in the 17 journals, in which more than 10 publications were made, came from independent institutions, 19.3% from the sections. None of the 91 publications in journals with an IF> 4 came from a subordinate organizational structure, indicating a gap between independent departments, sections and subordinate structures. The number of publications was based on the achievable IF of the individual topic and thus its attractiveness. Peripheral arterial disease was underrepresented in the publication topics in relation to the number of patients, with a share of 8.5%